


home and heart

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Nobuta wo Produce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-25
Updated: 2006-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:15:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1626233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>you can always go home, but will somebody be waiting for you?</p>
            </blockquote>





	home and heart

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks goes to Mer for being an awesome beta even if she is crazy. But she makes my fics look good so it evens out. Plus she doesn't kill me when I'm screaming 'WHERE IS MY BETA' despite only ten minutes passing.   
>  And once upon a time I had a Nobuta/Mariko fic started, but it was on my laptop and my laptop is being repaired at the moment.
> 
> Written for Aja

 

 

"I have class," Shuji had said, shrugging his book bag over his shoulder. He had tried to ignore the bags and suitcases piled around his friends' feet. "Don't get into trouble," he continued, "and don't let anyone push you around."

Being the first to leave made saying good-bye easier. No, he wasn't the one flying to Europe to take filmmaking classes. No, he wasn't the one flying to Australia and its great reefs. He was the one staying behind. Maybe it was a defense mechanism. He could admit that. It was a new level, a new step up to move forward in his life without one of them by his side. They were taking their first independent steps and now he had been left to his own devices.

"Don't fall," Akira had said and then slammed his fist into his palm, "bam."

Shuji had grimaced and Nobuta had stared intensely at Akira before turning back to Shuji. "You won't be - you'll be -"

With a shrug, Shuji said, "It's time for both of you to go."

Several years later - many experiences had, knowledge gained, two cardboard boxes full of postcards in Shuji's closet - and they had both returned. Not that Shuji hadn't seen them in the passing years, but the meetings had been brief and the three of them had never been together at once. Shuji and Akira. Shuji and Nobuta. Akira and Nobuta, several times in various places around the world.

Now a veritable mountain of luggage sat in the hall of Shuji's apartment, all mismatched, worn suitcases and duffel bags and none of it belonging to him. He eyed one of the duffel bags near the bottom. It was a faded blue - testimony to too much sun - with an equally faded gray cat patch decorating it. The cat was holding one paw up, waving goodbye.

Shuji knew for a fact that the cat patch was not covering a hole because two nights before they had left, Akira and Nobuta had hauled their newly bought luggage into his newly rented - and small - apartment along with a bag filled with animal patches.

"So Shuji will always be with us," Nobuta had explained, not quite meeting his eyes.

"Shuji-kun gets to see the world," Akira had confirmed. "All over and around."

He probably should have said something about the mess they were making, but instead he sighed and sent them home. And then spent most of the night sewing the animal decals onto their luggage.

One of the smaller duffels slithered from the top of the pile to the floor as he watched, but the rest of the mound didn't budge.

Shuji shook his head and retrieved his briefcase from the kitchen counter - where he had wisely moved it after the luggage had started arriving - and made for the small dining table. He wanted to get a little work done. Nobuta was in the shower and Akira -

\- Akira was half-asleep on the couch, his long legs stretched out before him. His hair was still damp from his shower and his chin rested on his chest. But he apparently was not asleep enough for Shuji to get away with his intent.

"Shuuuji," Akira drawled, rousing himself a little. "Why are you so far away?"

"I was, uh, just going to - um."

"Shuji, you're a bad host. You have guests." Akira patted the empty side of the couch with his hand. "Shuji. Shuji. Shuuuuuuji. Come visit."

"This is impor-"

"Shuuuuuuuji-kun."

"Fine. Fine." He didn't have to work the next day or the day after, but he had been thinking that maybe he would be able to get it out of the way. Because tomorrow he was going to have to tell Akira and Nobuta that the three of them would be together for a fart shorter time than they had thought and he didn't want the paperwork to be looming over him.

Maybe once Akira and Nobuta left for the night. If they left, he noted as he sat down next to Akira, because his friend looked awfully comfortable on his couch.

`Happy now?' he almost asked, but didn't. He merely picked up the remote and turned on his rarely used television.

It wasn't long before Shuji felt a heavy weight on his shoulder. Akira had started to nod off again, his head coming to rest on Shuji's shoulder and his damp hair making a growing wet spot on Shuji's shirt.

"Get off," Shuji said. "I'm not a pillow."

"Mm-hmm."

"And," Shuji continued, realizing that a very familiar scent hung in the air, "you used my shampoo, didn't you? Don't you have your own?"

"Smelled like Shuji," Akira mumbled against Shuji. "Nobuta says it's home. Two to one."

"If both of you use it up, you'll have to buy me more."

"Three for . . . three . . ."

"Hey," Shuji said and shrugged his shoulder. Akira just grumbled. "You're heavy. Get off."

No response, of course.

Shuji considered pushing him off, but he thought about the airport. Nobuta staggering under the weight of her bags and losing her grasp on several of them so they fell to the floor as she rushed to meet him, greeting him with her usual mumbled, "I'm back." Akira tripping over one of his suitcases and then flailing the rest of the way over to Shuji and Nobuta, draping himself over Shuji and playing with Nobuta's hair.

And Shuji was tired. He hadn't realized it, but sitting here with the television droning on and the damp weight of Akira resting on him he could feel his eyes drifting shut.

He tried fight it, but failed. In moments he was asleep.

*****

Despite her shower, Nobuko felt the exhaustion resting deep within her shoulders and back. It wasn't a new feeling. A long plane trip brought it on every time and she had grown used to it.

When she exited the bathroom and Akira greeted her with a gleeful, "Shuji's asleep," she was a little surprised.

Her eyes darted to Shuji's sleeping figure - slumped sideways with his cheek pressed against the couch arm. Not a comfortable position. She looked back to Akira. "He isn't -"

"Tired. But we should be the tired ones, eh, Nobuta?"

She clasped her hands and stared down at her feet, wondering about that. They had been gone for so long, doing what they had wanted to do and they had left Shuji behind. Even if he had encouraged them, she still wondered if it was right. The entire situation back then had been new. Shuji wasn`t the one leaving and Akira wasn`t following behind him and she wasn`t the one staying behind and sending them off.

Shuji had said he had what he wanted and that they needed to do what they wanted. However, Shuji was an accomplished liar, especially when he was lying to himself. "Should we have come home sooner?"

"He told us to go." Akira slid off the couch and onto the floor. "No one said no. Said `go and become a man, Akira!' - pow, so I went."

"Your father."

"Mmm, yes." He glanced back to Shuji. "Maybe a little too long. He never says enough."

"I think," she struggled to say this, because she thought it was true and yet could not quite believe it - her doubts rising and falling without reason - "we're all right. We're all happy."

Akira must have caught the questioning tone in her voice. "We had to go away to grow up. Find our different paths even if they end up leading to the same place. Surprise, we`re here." He rested his head on the coffee table. "But was it right? Did we grow up?"

She swallowed, twisted her hands and said, "I'm going to find some blankets," when she should have said, `Yes.'

It wasn't hard to guess what Akira was asking. Had he grown up? She knew the answer, but she couldn`t say them yet. The other two tended to be blind when they looked or judged themselves and sometimes she knew them better than they knew themselves. It was still hard to understand why they couldn't see the things she saw in them.

The same could be said about them seeing qualities in her she didn't know she possessed, but she knew better. They encouraged her and pushed her forward. She did what she did because of them. Without them - she didn't like to think of that.

Nobuko had become Nobuta for them. And for herself.

Shuji kept his spare blankets in the same closet he kept the spare towels. She opened the door and found the space dark and despite the presence of a light switch, she fumbled over the towels and searched for the blankets with her hands. Anything to take a few seconds so she could have her voice when she returned.

She found the blankets maybe a little too quickly. Pulling three of them out, she walked over and covered Shuji with one. Akira tugged it down over Shuji's legs. Shuji never stirred.

Nobuko handed the second blanket to Akira and said, "We've grown up . . . Akira."

Akira smiled and she saw the same weariness in him that was in her. They had needed to come home, she decided, if not for Shuji then for themselves.

"But we're not done. Ah, it's never ending." He draped the blanket over his shoulders and slumped to the side, against Shuji's legs. "Come sit, Nobuta."

Nobuko knew that if she sat down she might not get up again. She had a hotel room reserved a short cab ride away.

She sat down, spreading her blanket over her knees. "We shouldn't stay."

"Can't leave without saying goodbye," Akira replied before slipping his hand under Shuji's blanket and retrieving the television remote. He flipped through the channels before stopping on some new late night drama.

Nobuta watched with some interest until the images on the screen become blurry, nothing but flickers of light as her eyes slid shut.

The last thing she heard was Akira's voice saying softly, "Welcome home to us."

*****

The smell of coffee, strong and rich, woke Akira. His body ached from sleeping on the floor, but he had slept in worse positions and worse conditions. This wasn't so bad.

And maybe Shuji would let him have some coffee.

"Shuuuuji-kun," Akira groaned and pulled himself out from under the blanket covering him. Nobuta was stretched out on the couch above him, her own blanket and Shuji's covering her. Her lips were slightly parted and one of her hands lay curled up by her cheek.

She still hit him in the heart, all these years after high school, but it was no longer quite so sore.

Shuji was seated at the dining room table, his head bent over a laptop. He started and whirled around to stare at Akira. "What are you doing up?"

"I woke up." Shuji could ask some dumb things. "Coffee?"

It wasn't really a question because Akira was already on his feet and headed for the kitchen. Shuji made a horrified face. "Should you have any?"

"It doesn't stunt growth," was all Akira would reply as he poured himself a cup.

Shuji sputtered. "Th-that's not what I meant."

"Mm-hmm. Why is Shuji working when his friends are over? Shuji-kun was told not to." Someone had to make sure Shuji had a life. Someone who went by the name Kusano Akira.

To his credit, Shuji glanced at his laptop shame-faced. "I wanted to get some things out of the way. That's okay, right?"

"Don't tire yourself out," Akira warned. He spotted a dishrag with one of Shuji's typical patch jobs on it - a black bear wearing a scarf and a winter hat. He held it up and went, "Grrr. Bear will make you pay if you do."

Shuji stared. "You are so strange."

"He's right," said a quiet voice.

"Ah! Nobuta!" Akira barely managed to catch himself on the counter to avoid falling to the floor. "She's awake!"

"I noticed."

Rising to her feet, Nobuta gathered all three blankets and started folding them carefully. "Both of you are . . . loud."

Akira winced and Shuji apologized. "Sorry."

"N - no. It's good." The barest hint of her old crooked smile crossed her face before the other side of her mouth caught up to join it. It was a good smile on her Akira had always thought once he had seen it that first time. That had been the summer vacation he and Shuji had returned to visit and Nobuta and Uehara Mariko had met them at the station.

Uehara had waved and laughed and said, "Nobuko! They're here!" Then Nobuta had smiled and it had been shy, sweet, and beautiful all at once.

He had tried to block Shuji from seeing it and Shuji had given him the usual `why am I your friend' look before complimenting Nobuta and then making everything fall into place like it had been before they had left. Shuji was strangely immune to the charm of Nobuta's smile.

Akira cleared his throat. "Who was right?"

Nobuta put the folded blankets down on the couch and shifted her weight from her left foot to her right and back again. "A - Akira. Shuji shouldn't work so hard."

"Hey -" Shuji started to protest. "Hey - I just - "

He wouldn't meet their eyes.

"Something's wrong," Nobuta said.

"No! I, um . . ."

"Didn't Shuji-kun want us to come back?" Akira asked. He had returned to Japan to take a few college classes and Nobuta had returned to go after grants for a filming project she wanted to direct. At least, that had been the reasons they had given to Shuji. They would have six months together.

"No! I wanted you to come back. It's just, we're not going to have as much time together as we thought."

"We're not going anywhere," Akira said.

Nobuta hunched for shoulders forward. "Shuji?"

"Your father offered me a position in America. Los Angeles. The head of management was fired and he thinks it would be a good experience for me to take over until he finds someone else he trusts to take the position." Shuji cleared his throat. "I, um, leave in a week."

"What?" Akira slammed his coffee cup on the counter and whirled around, heading for the door. "My father. He can't make you go." He punched his fist into his open palm. "I'll talk to him."

But he was stopped from leaving by a hand clamping down on the back of his shirt. He jerked to a stop - nearly falling backwards - and glanced behind him to see Nobuta, her eyes big and her head shaking `no'.

"Akira," Shuji said, "it's not your father. He gave me a choice. I said yes."

"Wh - I - AKIRA SHOCK," he managed and slumped to the floor. Nobuta let go of his shirt.

Shuji was going to leave them after they had finally come back home? What was wrong with him? He couldn't just leave his friends like that.

"It might be only for a few months. It could be as long as a year," Shuji said softly. "I - I'm sorry. I really want to do this."

"Shuji," Nobuta said, "needs to do what Shuji needs to do." Akira thought her words more for him than Shuji. "You - you told us to go and we went. Maybe it's your turn now."

"But is it really?" Akira felt Shuji's eyes on him.

He raised his head and met Shuji's gaze. Shuji looked tired and the way his face was set - Akira knew that all he had to say was that it wasn't okay and Shuji would stay. This time, unlike the first one, Shuji would stay if he said stay. If Nobuta said stay.

Akira swallowed and stood up. "You could stay," - here Akira saw Shuji begin a slow nod - "but you shouldn't."

"What?"

He made his way over to Shuji and wrapped an arm over his shoulders. "Akira says Shuji should go and have fun. Be a good man. This time we'll wait."

Nobuta was smiling again and Shuji was only putting up a mild struggle to escape from Akira. "Are you serious?"

"We'll wait," Nobuta agreed. "Until Shuji comes home."

 


End file.
